A new Institute for Cross-College Biology Education is currently in development in an attempt to improve biology advising, compensate for lecturers of introductory biology courses and add cohesiveness throughout a variety of biology-related majors and courses.
The Institute will serve as an umbrella group for the different undergraduate biology programs and majors that span more than one school or college and give the courses a home for students to turn to, rather than going to individuals in the colleges, which are as far-spread as engineering and human ecology.
The ICBE will have two branches: the Team for Instruction and Student Services and the Team for Outreach. Budget reallocation will provide the Institute’s funding.
The instruction and student services branch will mostly deal with student and instructor support for Zoology/Botany 151/152 and the four-semester Biology Core Curriculum (Biocore), both of which are introductory sequences for biology-related majors.
Professor emeritus and interim ICBE director Millard Susman feels that an improved emphasis on introductory courses will be determined by the number of students in the two programs a year ? 800 students in the two semesters of Botany 151 and 152, 160 students starting Biocore each year, and approximately 150 to 200 biology students.
“Having this institute will improve advising,” said University of Wisconsin spokesperson Emily Carlson. Not only that, she added, but since many lecturers come from different departments, it will improve communication between the different departments to facilitate both necessity of material and problems within a particular course.
“Students will get better advice due to better communication,” Susman confirmed.
The Team for Outreach will administer programs such as professional development and outreach activities to K-12 students. One of the aspects of professional development is giving graduate students a chance to teach before getting hired on as UW staff.
“[Graduate students] will actually get teaching experience before they actually are faculty members,” Susman said, adding most graduate students have no experience in teaching and just get thrown into lecturing before they are prepared.
The Institute will also place emphasis on graduate students who work in biology-related fields. Another benefit of the ICBE will be added funds to hire people to fill in at various departments. That way, when faculty leave a department to teach one of the general courses, the department can replace them more easily.
Currently, the UW offers 38 different majors in the life sciences, with 20 to 25 percent of enrolled students in biology-related fields graduating with a major. It should be no surprise, then, that UW decided to create an institute to integrate the cross-college classes, according to Susman.
Susman, who retired recently from his career as a genetics professor, said a similar institute had been discussed when he joined the faculty 40 years ago.
“We’ve always resisted creating a college of biology,” Susman said, adding he is very optimistic about this alternative compared to isolating all biology-related fields.
“This is like a dream come true to me.”
The ICBE will see an internal review three years from now and a formal review two years after that.
“So, it’s a long term experiment…it’s just new,” Susman said.
